The Grenada gazette., 1887-12-31
A MYSTERY.
Which Has Never Been Satisfac-
trily Explained.

We sat IN the Office of small week
ly newspaper, my friend George Gresh-
ain and 1 George is editor and
propl.is<a. Of the local sheet, and l am
a lawyer with more profession than
practice. Ny office is just across the
passage from my friends, and is a
gloomy. DISMAL room, whereas his is
sunshiny and looks out on the street;
SO q good deal of unoccupied time is
passed in the shabby old armchair be-
tween the editorial desk and the WIN
dow Sometimes l hclp with the
work. dh presses; sometimes-as now
Il smoke and dream and watch him
receive and answer telegrams and jot
down items for his paper
The smoke from my pipe floats
above my friends ruddy head. He is
writing obituaries. know it by the
set Uf his coat and the expression on
his back. Pensive regrets slip down
his coM-sleeyc and run glibly off the
end of his pen; ecomiums collect in
regiments in the front rank of his
brain. and are marshaled to the lips
by the absent tugging of the left
hand at the soft blond mustache; SYM
pathy and lamentation is gazed down
by the grave blue eyes on to the paper
which lies before him like a tombstone
awaiting the inscription. He is kind
hearted man. is Gresham, and what he
writes is not all empty platitude. He's
sorry fer the people, even when he
does not know them-perhaps from a
realization Of the strangeness. the ut
ter inoomrehensibility of the change
called death; the ceasing to be. and
the mystery of the beyond.
Ny friends pen caught in the fiber
of the paper. and made malignant
sp!utter nnA blot in the middle Of the
III, Mensortsm." He whispered two
words softly to his red mustache, and
reached over for the blottcr.
George" l question, "do the dead
ever riseP'
Il Isuppose SO" he answers, sopping
away ut the ink industri0usly.
Some thing certainly becomes OF
vital force - spirit - soul whatever
you choose to call II. When the body
returns to original elements and is re-.
distributed; changes the relation of its
parls-something becomes of the soul
it's rcsurrected-the process of de-
vclopmant goes on. All the factions
agree on that. l think, no matter how
much they skirmsh along the line"
Hold on! I don't mcal that.
want to know whether you consider
il possible for the spirits of the dead
to return hereto manifest them.
selves to ns?"
'GhostsP-popularlv so-callod?"
"Yes. that's il. ID, You believe
that men have ever seen ghosts?'
Gresham threw back his head and
laughed. He is not an imaginative
man.
II believe that men have believed
that they have seen ghosts" he said;
"but whether they really have or not
is an open question. Men have loid
claim 10 illumination, divination,
spiritual intercourse and the like,
ever since Imagination became suf-
ficionuy developed to formulate and
inculcate theories. They may be true,
they may not be true. Who shall
saw What man holds TO be truth
is a truth to him until he outgrows 1t.
Relatively. any thing may be true
Relatively, then. q man may be.
licvc that he has seen u ghostP'
query. Relatively to whate"
'"Io the strength Of bis imagination
and the weakness of his digestive ap
paratus 1 should say" George answers
lightly. "1'he thing looks abnormal
to me-out OF order and contrary &c
Jaw. II intercourse with the beyond
lad been always open 1t would seem
that we have failed to utilize our op.
portunities for increase OF knowledge.
We believe great many things. bu'
what do we knowe What have the
spirits and ghosts taught usp Moth
Ing. The priori evidence, to my
mind, Is against the ghost and spiri'
theories, from the fact that they have
taught as nothing. The sum Of human
knowledge Of tho beyond has never
been increased one jot or title by the